


The Kyoshi book club

by avrelia



Series: The World of Infinite Hope - canon compliant stories [10]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Book Club, F/M, Fire Nation politics, Gen, May Maiko week 2019, Sokka loves shoping, Zuko and Sokka's friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-26
Updated: 2019-09-26
Packaged: 2020-10-28 21:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20785088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avrelia/pseuds/avrelia
Summary: Zuko takes a day off and hangs out with Sokka. Kyoshi warriors have a book club meeting. Naturally, the boys decide to crush it.Timeline: Some time after my story "Connections" and three years after Mai and Zuko broke up.Apparently, Gene Luen Yang said Mai and Zuko get back together three years after break up. It works for me, and here it is, my version of this moment.





	The Kyoshi book club

**Author's Note:**

> I started to write it for May Maiko Week 2019, and finished - well- now.
> 
> prompt: beginning

***

Zuko sat behind his desk working on treaty regarding remaining Fire Nation naval bases on neutral islands. He had to explain to Earth King, calmly and persuasively, why he needed these bases to stay where they were. And he only managed to write the first two lines with polite greetings and the topic of treaty.

Those islands have never belonged to any nation, and had no population of their own, so the Harmony Restoration movement didn't touch them. However, now that the colonies were gone – or achieved their new status like Yu Dao, the question of neutral islands has arisen.

He slumped in his chair. It might end with him asking Uncle for help, but he needed to do it himself. At least to finish the first pathetic draft. He just had to get his thoughts in order. He knew why they needed for the navy to stay where they were, but how to make it look nonthreatening to other nations?

“Hey, what are you doing?” familiar voice, though rather unexpected here and now, shook him up. 

Zuko looked up. “Working. Hi, Sokka, What are you doing here?” 

Sokka marched in and lounged in an armchair in from of him. “Was just passing by the palace, when a thought occurred to me: let’s go and check on our favorite fire lord.”

“Just passing by? From where to where?”

“I came to meet Suki, of course. But as a leader of elite warrior force she has some obligations for today she couldn’t get out of. Some kind of girly stuff. Kicking butts and taking names, you know, as usual.”

“She was rather busy with the new recruits for the last months. But she is not on duty at the palace today.”

“We agreed to meet later tonight, but for now I am stuck with nothing to do.”

“I can’t imagine myself with nothing to do.”

“That’s because you severely lack the imagination.”

“Maybe. Right now I am trying to imagine how to convince king Kuei that I cannot dismantle my naval bases on neutral islands, and I won’t use them for sneak attacks. 

“MMM… sneak attacks… those are the best kind…” Sokka said dreamily and looked around the study taking in all the new decor. “You’ve seem to acquire quite a lot of potted plants. A new hobby?”

Zuko tried not to blush. “No, just.. eehh… supporting local small businesses.”

“A very important sentiment. But why not leave the islands, since they never belonged to Fire Nation?”

“Because if I leave them empty, nothing will stop Earth Kingdom or even Northern Water tribe to claim them.”

“Or us! Why did you leave the Southern tribe out?”

“You don’t have enough navy to hold them.” 

“If you don’t want Earth Kingdom or Water Tribes to have them, you can give them to Air Nomads.”

Zuko stared at his friend. Sokka stared back.

“Aang won’t do sneak attack. He’ll ask politely first, you know him.”

“Very funny.”

“But seriously, why do you need them?”

“Because if I just dismantle my navy and make all those men and women come home with nothing to do, I’ll have a bloody revolt on my hands. And it’s not an exaggeration. Beside, the empty naval bases will be taken on by someone – just like military bases in Earth Kingdom not taken over by king’s forces became outlaw’s hideouts.”

Sokka looked like he seriously considered the problem. “May be that idea about Aang is worth thinking over.”

“What do you mean, idea?”

“A sparkle of idea. We need to think about it more. In any case, you don’t seem to be making a progress, and can take a day off”. 

“Why would I need to take a day off?”

“To recharge, refresh your brain, put some color on your face...”

“I have more than enough color in my face, thanks.”

Sokka looked like he considered making another joke about it, but couldn’t find a perfect one.

“I am busy.” In fact, Zuko badly wanted a day off, and wasn’t sure why he kept refusing. The opportunity to spend time with a friend without any kind of crisis going on came up… almost never. 

“No, you are not. I talked to Suki, and she knows your schedule, and she is sure I can take you out for a fun day in the city today without the world ending.”

“Fine, a day off would be … nice.”

“So, what do you do for fun around here?”

“Ehhh… nothing? Some firebending and sword practice, reading in the archives and library?”

“Not this time. This time we are going to hit the city and see what it has to offer in terms of fun for two fine young men.”

They left the palace before noon, both in nondescript Fire Nation clothes, and strolled towards the Capital city’s busy trading streets. 

“We’ll start with shopping. Good shopping always lifts my spirit. Do you have any shops to recommend? Except for flowers, that is?”

“I don’t do much shopping normally. But I think that weapons shop’s supposed to be decent.”

The weapon shop was indeed decent, and they amused themselves by trying out several swords and sabers, and several other types of weapons. Zuko’s glance lingered on the extensive collection of shuriken. There was no good reason to buy them, or think about them, and he turned away. They spent there enough time so that the owner started to get nervous, and left just before he would demand to buy something from his shop. 

The city was full of people going about their business or just hanging out. Zuko knew it pretty well, but the feeling of walking around without a purpose was strange and slightly uncomfortable for him. Sokka, on the contrary looked like walking without a purpose was a form of art he mastered.

“Oh, look! ‘Treasures and Curiosities’! Sounds interesting!” and they went in a small dingy shop. It was full of dust that covered all the shelves and counters and all kinds of objects. They poked around, but at the end none of them wanted to dig through the dust searching for possible treasures. 

Sokka looked like he seriously considered buying a mummified three-headed turtleduck or an ancient straw dragon toy. 

“In shops like that one could find some scary stuff.” Zuko mused looking at the unfortunate turtleduck.

“I know! That’s the beauty of them! But I am not in the mood to look through all that dust. I’ll make a note for another time. Maybe.” 

The next was a bookstore – in a perfect contrast it was large, clean and full of light and people. Zuko moved to older scrolls trying to find anything predating war that he didn’t have in the palace library. Sokka wandered about trying to see what people were buying. 

“Have you heard of Pai Li?” Sokka asked coming back.

“No, who’s that?”

“No idea, but a lot of people seem to be buying his book.” Zuko turned and saw a small book titled ‘The legends of Earth Kingdom. A grizzled war veteran wrote down these tales as they were told by beautiful women.’ 

“Sounds like nonsense.”

“And yet it looks very popular.”

“So? Buy if you want it, I am not interested.”

“Me, neither. But I am curious. Why such sudden popularity? Can I write something popular, too?”

“As long as you don’t draw anything in it, you definitely can.”

Sokka considered something. “Suki did mention they have a book club meeting later tonight. We are supposed to meet right after. But I think we should come a bit earlier and check it out. What if they are also reading it?”

“Whatever.” Zuko found an interesting scroll titled “History of the Fifth Nation” and started reading. Sokka waited, then got bored, made him pay and dragged him out of the store. “Did you know that the outlaws and pirates and robbers used to be called The Fifth Nation?”

“No.”

“I wonder why didn’t I know that. Pirate fleets basically ruled over the ocean at certain ages, bothering all nations...”

“Let’s have lunch, and you can tell me all about it. What do you prefer, meat or meat?”

Zuko scratched his head. “Meat would be good, I think. Let’s just not sit inside.”

They went somewhere and got kebabs with flatbread, then walked along the streets trying to find a place to sit and eat. They didn’t, not before all food was eaten, and there was no point to sit. So they strolled and chatted – well, Sokka did the chatting part, telling him about his new ideas, and stuff the Mechanist was developing – something to catch lightnings and use it not for killing. And it felt pretty normal, and Zuko found that the day off right was indeed a pretty useful idea. They noticed a tea shop and went in to drink tea. Then Sokka noticed the arcade parlor, and they had to go there, too. Zuko was ready to cringe – old Fire Nation arcades didn’t revel in subtlety, but in four years since the war, the most egregiously unsubtle arcades were gone, and games were tolerably amusing. They played for some time, and when they got out, it was growing dark.

“Well, I think it’s time to crush the book club meeting.” Sokka announced happily. 

“Are you sure about that? They probably don’t want us there.”

“If I could wear a Kyoshi warrior dress, I can go to a Kyoshi book club meeting. Pretty sure it’s in the rules somewhere. Besides, they are going to talk about books, and anyone can talk about books! And they can always throw us out, if they are unhappy with our presence.”

“Fine.” Zuko didn’t particularly want to go, but he wanted his day off to continue.

They came to an ordinary house that served the Kyoshi warriors’ headquarters. The large room that usually served as a training room was brightly lit, and they heard bouts of laughter and giggles before they even came close. 

“What do you want to do?” Zuko whispered.

“We’ll come to the window and see what is going on.”

“They are having fun.”

“And so are we!”

Sokka looked through the window inside, and whistled happily. “Yep, they are all here.” Then he listened silently. “They are reading something.” 

More laughter. 

Zuko came to the window and looked in. Here indeed were the Kyoshi warriors he knew well – in regular clothes instead of uniforms, including Ty Lee and Suki, and then about a dozen unfamiliar girls who must have been new recruits, and also – Mai. He knew they were her friends and she spent a lot of time with them, but still he didn’t expect to see her tonight.

Mai was reading aloud from a book, light smile on her lips when the rest was falling over laughing. She looked like she tried really hard to keep from laughing herself. 

“Of course, they are also reading that book by the Pai Li guy, like everybody else in the city.”

“...and then the warriors Bek and Pon looked in each other eyes, and their hearts beat faster and their breath grew heave and ragged, and they threw away their swords, and grabbed each other’s...” Mai’s raspy monotone clashed with the lurid picture the words painted.

At that point he felt light touches to his spine. Zuko turned fast to find a very young girl grinning at him. “Caught you!” 

Sokka was similarly caught by another girl. “I thought you are all chi-blocking and stuff.” 

“But if we blocked your chi, we would have have to carry you in, and now you can go all by yourselves,” the girl grinned evilly.

And they went in, surrounded by girls and giggles. 

“Look what we’ve caught!” 

Nobody seemed to mind their presence much and Zuko felt better. Sokka looked to be perfectly at ease, greeting everyone, kissing Suki and waving to others. Zuko tried to quietly settle at the door, but Suki wasn’t about to allow pretend invisibility.

“Since you’re here, guys, make yourselves useful. We are ready for a break, so make us tea, and we’ll have a lively book discussion.”

Zuko busied himself with tea. He enjoyed making tea for his friends or for mom and her family, and he didn’t have enough opportunities to do so. Making tea for twenty girls, most of whom he didn’t know was a new experience for him, but liked this challenge. Not mention it was the first time in years that he could also make tea for Mai. He glanced at her and caught her glancing back at him, with slightly ironic smile. It was indeed funny, their whole book club invading escapade, and he was glad they were brought inside instead of shooing away, as he thought they would be. 

Sokka took upon himself the distribution of tea and snacks, and soon everyone was again settled comfortably.

Suki asked, “Anyone has any questions?”

“I have! Why are you reading this book? Who is this stupid Pai Li guy and why everyone is obsessed about him?” Sokka had a lot of questions, but instead of answers they heard thunderous laughter throughout the room. It seemed every girl in the room laughed their hearts out. It was a slightly unsettling and confusing vision. Zuko glanced at Mai – she was laughing, too. 

Sokka, also confused, asked again: “So who is that mysterious grizzled veteran whom beautiful women were telling stories, and why is it a funny question? I don’t ever remember my jokes having such amazing effect.”

Tu Lee, with tears in her eyes, pointed at Mai and said, “Here is our grizzled veteran,” then at the Kyoshi warriors, “and here are our beautiful women.”

Mai cheerfully waved at them. The explanation still didn’t make sense. “What do you mean?” Zuko asked.

“What, you think they are not beautiful? And I think taking over Ba Sing Se with Azula qualifies us for grizzled veterans’ part.”

“Yes, but do you mean MAI wrote this book?”

“I didn’t write it as much as wrote down what we came up here with together. Just stories that we amused ourselves with – one day I decided to collect them, and it turned out – it’s a book, and people like it.” Mai explained. “It’s really a joint labor of friendship and being silly together. Here, take the books as gifts, we have enough copies for all our friends.”

“Can I have all your autographs?” Sokka got in the mood of things.

And Zuko couldn’t stop staring at Mai. He couldn’t figure out what was the most unexpected – that Mai wrote a silly book, or that she was laughing about it with a room full of her friends. He remembered that she said once that she finally enjoyed her life, and he could see it, here, now. She was quiet and calm – she was still Mai, but she was relaxed, comfortable and cheerful, instead of frozen over and hiding everything. With a pang of sadness he thought that Mai had to run away from him to get here. It was an agonizing thought. 

The evening continued, and the girls talked about the book and various stories in it, giggled, read their favorite parts. At some point he saw Sokka reading from the book, with exaggerated intonation. More giggles and laughter, including from Sokka himself. Everyone seemed to forget that Zuko even was here, and he decided he enjoyed the evening very much. 

“Do you want to read a little?” He heard Mai asking him and jumped.

“Do I have to?”

“No, but it’s fun, or we can read parts together, like theater!” added Sokka.

“I’d rather not read parts, but I can read a little, I guess.” he said, looking at Mai and gratified by her little smile. “Can you find me something not very…?”

“Sure.” Mai leafed through the book, and handed him an open page. 

He started reading. It wasn’t as bad as he feared, and he recognized Mai’s succinct style of writing. It was easy and pleasant to read aloud, and he found himself involved in a story and occasionally snickering. The story was still ridiculous, but strangely engaging, and he finished reading it with more interest that he expected. The audience was also enjoying his reading, and he felt Mai’s smile on him the whole time.

Eventually the meeting was over. The Kyoshi warriors cleaned the room and started leaving. Sokka said, “See you tomorrow” and disappeared with Suki.

And then, without any conscious decision he asked Mai, “Can I walk you home?”

And she, surprising Zuko, and possibly herself, said “Sure.”

***

They walked together in silence for some time, glancing at each other occasionally and not saying anything. Mai had a good look at Zuko during the book club. He grew up. Not just grew taller – and walking by his side made very clear how tall he was now, but grew up in general – he had more sharp lines and angles where he used to be soft and round, even though his softness wasn’t altogether gone, and she could see an awkward sullen boy inside the impressive young fire lord. He was rather adorably clueless about all the attention from the new girls, who were all fire nation, that he got tonight. It was a good training moment for the girls, too – they needed to see him as a relatively normal human being. 

“You looked wonderful tonight.” Zuko broke the silence. “I don’t mean beautiful… I mean you are beautiful normally... but that's not what I am saying… You looked happy, like you’re enjoying yourself and having fun.”

“Yes, I did have fun.”

“It was very impressive, the book – people are crazy about it.”

“Zuko, you were not impressed with the book.”

“Well, I wasn’t, not with the book itself. But I was – with you.”

“I have all this hours at the shop with nothing to do… And that was not really a compliment, by the way.” 

“It wasn’t. But I am glad you were having fun with it. I am sorry you had to break up with me to be happy.”

Mai rolled her eyes. Leave it to Zuko to make it so over-dramatic. She had to do a lot of things to get to this point, and most of it had nothing to do with Zuko at all. 

“I know I messed up, and lost you. There not a day goes by when I don’t feel your absence.” 

“Really?”

“Well, okay, some days, but that’s beside the point. I remember what you said to me. And I think about it, mulling over and over. And I keep thinking, I can fix it, if I work hard, try to be better… but I can’t. I can promise not to keep secrets, not to leave you alone, away. But how can I promise to keep that promise? And why would you believe me? And you shouldn’t. You have a good life, you said so yourself, and I can see you’re right. I loved watching you tonight. Laughing with your friends, being happy, they respect you and love you.. I can see what you mean that you don’t want any changes in your life.”

Mai didn’t say anything, and they walked in silence again. It felt good, thought Mai, it felt so good to walk together, and she wondered why would she ever want to stop that feeling. She took his hand and interlace her fingers with his. And they continued walking without saying anything, afraid to break a spell, but finally Zuko stopped.

“Mai.”

It was more of a question, she knew, so she looked straight at him and tried to think of an answer. The easiest one would be a kiss. Also a wrong one, most likely. She wanted to make it right this time. 

“I like my life now. What I do, how I live, I don’t know that I’d call myself happy, but I am pretty comfortable. That why I feel strong enough to try and start again. With you. If you want it.”

“Of course I want it.” Zuko leaned closer, for a kiss.

She stepped back, without letting go of his hand. “Can we just.. take it slow? Get to know each other first, talk about all kind things? I am afraid if we start with kissing again, we won’t be able to talk much.” 

He laughed. It was all good. “Works for me.” Then he pulled her in a hug and whispered into her ear “I want to do it right, too”. 

Mai laid her head on his chest and listened to Zuko’s steady heartbeat, feeling perfectly content.

**Author's Note:**

> There is a reference to "The Rise of Kyoshi" novel by FC Yee. It's awesome! (the novel, not the reference).
> 
> About Zuko's previous experience with arcade games one can read in "Ember Island Arcade" one shot comic, now part of "The Lost Adventures"
> 
> The book club part is brought you by my memories of me and my friends at university, writing nonsense stories and laughing ourselves silly over them.


End file.
